It has been nearly three months that Manipur has been burning with little hope of a resolution in sight. Despite protests from Opposition parties, a viral video that shocked not just the nation but also the world and threw a spotlight on what was actually happening in Manipur under the cover of an internet ban. A party delegation of Opposition MPs, which recently concluded its visit, has hit the nail on the head when it blamed “brazen indifference” towards the north eastern hill State as being responsible for the continuing violence.
At the core of the problem lies the fact that there hasn’t been any serious attempt to get the two battling communities to resolve their differences and chalk out a peace plan. The ruling State government that belongs to the BJP is dominated by Meiteis -- the majority community that lives in the valley and who are warring with the Kuki-Zo community, a community of Christian tribes who live mainly in the hills and form a minority in the State.
It is undoubtedly clear by now, that the ruling party in the State is uninterested in peace. Everything that the Chief Minister N Biren Singh has done is to pander to his own community and has made no effort to reach out to the rival tribes that have completely lost faith in the ruling government and have now taken it upon themselves to defend their communities from the Meiteis.
This isn’t to absolve the Kuki-Zo community who are also responsible for acts of violence and arson that have characterised the battle in Manipur. What’s worrying, however, is that this conflict has been allowed to fester, with the Union government seemingly happy to go along with what their party’s government has been doing over the last three months -- characterising the minority Kukis as illegal, poppy-growing aliens, who have no legitimate space who need to be exterminated and the entire lands that makes up Manipur cleared of the illegal aliens. For the Kukis it is a fight for survival, a fight to prove that they belong to India as much as anyone else.
But what inspires the most dread is the role of the central government in allowing this to fester for so long. Any other government with a sense of responsibility towards a quick resolution would have undoubtedly dismissed the partisan State government and appointed a neutral administrator to take charge of the State until the situation is normalised -- even if it takes years to do so.
But clearly, the union government is uninterested in doing that. For conflicts like these to diffuse, the central government needs to play the role of a neutral arbitrator rather than fanning the flames of violence through lending its support to one community over another. What’s happening in Manipur is a microcosm for the larger majoritarian project that the current ruling BJP government is hoping to lay out over the course of its rule in the country. One hopes the ruling BJP realises the dangers of the game it is playing and the consequences it will have should the country pass the tipping point which, will only result in a wider civil war.
